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What day is the Sabbath

The Sabbath is a perpetual covenant between the Lord and His people (Exodus 2:1-2), but what day that is depends on your work. Jesus taught that the Sabbath was made for man’s benefit, not man for its benefit (Mark 2:27). The Sabbath is to give us a certain day of the week on which to meditate on God’s Word with a heart of worship and build our personal relationship towards God.

Some people work on Saturday and Sunday so they can only get to have a Sabbath on another day. Jesus worked on the Jewish Sabbath.

Did you know that the Jews had two Sabbaths in a week? Jesus ministered for 3 1/2 years, from 27 AD at the beginning of a year of Jubilee to His death in 31 AD Passover which meant that that Passover week had two Sabbaths, a High day Sabbath (John 19:31) followed by a regular Sabbath.

The Gregorian calendar was introduced in 1582, then in 1752 the British by an act of Parliament advanced the calendar overnight from September 2 to September 14, 1752. It has also been proven that the year date could be up to 4 years out.

Then if we look in our Bibles we have prophetical year which has 360 days.

In chapter four of Ezekiel we see that he uses the pattern that is set out in Leviticus verses 3 and 14 and then 18, 21, 24, 27 and 28 in Deuteronomy and in Numbers for the Biblical day of disobedience, which is, each day of disobedience was to represent a year of judgment and punishment against the nation. We see here that Ezekiel’s theme of punishment or judgment is a prophetic day which equals a year.

Ezekiel 4:5 For I have laid on you the years of their iniquity, according to the number of the days, three hundred and ninety days. So you shall bear the iniquity of the house of Israel.

Please note that in Numbers 14:34, where a day equals a year of punishment (Ezekiel 4:6) “and when you have completed these you shall lie down a second time but on your right side and bear the punishment of the house of Judah, forty days I assign you a day for each year.”

One prophetical day stood for one year of 360 days – one cycle.
A “time” was 360 days in prophetical year .

Some don’t agree on the 360 days prophetical year or even 365 day year and say that the Israelites had a 354 day year and they at times added days or a month to keep things in balance thus we are now talking about a year of 383/4 days as it suited.

With this type of discrepancy even our Saturday and Sunday may be incorrect; therefore the actual Sabbath of a Saturday or Sunday has been lost. Thus many “Sabbatarians,” (Saturday Sabbath) and “Lord’s Day” keepers are wrong on what day the Sabbath can be.

In the big picture it is not important to know what day of the week that Jesus died on or rose again! It has nothing to do with our salvation, other than we are saved by the faith of Christ on the Cross and our act of repentance. What is important is that we give a day to the Lord.

Religious people want to say, ‘which is the correct day’ and they don’t see the issue of having a day of rest as the most important. In either case you could be wrong! If you are worshiping and giving God a day on a Tuesday or any day you will not be condemned because you are in Christ Jesus.

In China we have church on a Wednesday to cater for people, who work on weekend, and we have church on Saturday and Sunday for others who work during the week and I have a day on Thursday. I am too busy on the other days even though I enjoy fellowship with the saints (Hebrews 10:25).

For example pastors work on the Sabbath, so for them to have a day just with God in rest, it maybe a Monday or any other day.

To say it must be and can only be on a certain day then it is under the Law.

How can we find out if we are under the Law?
If we say:
• I must do this to get more of God’s love, then it is under the Law.
• I want to do this; because God is well pleased then it is under grace.

We do certain things not only because He commanded it, but because we want to do them in obedience using our free will.

Saturday or Sunday is not the issue; it is the condition of the heart of worship in the believer towards God in having a day of rest.